catering license?

[renee]

hey ya'll! just wandering if anyone knows what licenses are needed
to start a catering business in Texas, and who to contact. thanks!!

[AprilB]

I don't know about Texas, but I think your first call should be to the State Dept of Health and find out about what types of food handling/sanitation permits you need. Kitchen if you own or are renting.

Obviously business licenses, insurance.

I don't know of any State (except in rare instances for baked goods MAYBE in NH) that allows out of home catering, but that doesn't discount personal chefs or private in-home catering (meaning you use the client's kitchen for parties and such.

Hope this helps.

April

[panini]

Renee,
Where's Burnet?
No disagreeing with April, but I would start with your local health department. You can work from your home as long as you have a seperate kitchen detached from you regular kitchen and is inspected.
Spelunking? anywhere around big D.
Panini

[Jamieloo]

From what I understand (and I'm near Dallas), if you operate out of your home -it is true, you must have a separate commerical kitchen -detached from your "home" kitchen. If you do not have that, I've heard of people renting a kitchen 2 or 3 days a week from local churches or restaurants.
I'm just not sure of insurance issues. A lot has changed from the olden days where you could just open your home to people and serve food without 30 inspections. Good luck!